When he was hired, the hope was that Al Golden could get Miami’s football program back on track.
Four and a half seasons and several embarrassing losses later, that hasn’t proven to be the case, and once again, the Hurricanes will be looking for a new coach after Golden was fired Sunday evening.
Tight ends coach Larry Scott has been named the Hurricanes’ interim coach, and Miami Athletic Director Blake James said those were the only personnel moves the school made Sunday.
Golden, who previously coached at Temple, had a 32-25 career record with Miami, which will take a 4-3 record and a 1-2 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference play into its game at Duke on Saturday.
“On behalf of my family I want to thank the University of Miami for a tremendous opportunity,” Golden said in a statement released by the school. “I believe in what we are doing and how we are doing it and we have some outstanding young men in our football program. Though this moment is difficult, we wish the Canes the best of luck going forward.”
Though James repeatedly said that the school would evaluate Golden’s performance at the end of the season, Saturday’s 58-0 loss to Clemson proved too much for the coach to overcome.
The Tigers came to Sun Life Stadium ranked No. 6 in the nation and embarrassed Miami, handing the Hurricanes their biggest loss in school history and a second conference loss, which may have stricken a blow to Miami’s hopes of playing for the Coastal Division crown and the ACC championship.
“Al navigated us through the NCAA case. He always represented our institution in a first class manner,” James said, referencing the protracted NCAA investigation into Miami that marred Golden’s first two and a half seasons with the Hurricanes. “Sometimes you have to make that type of decision. It’s very difficult and one that you have to take with great seriousness to it. But it came to the point where I felt it was best for our program.”
Under Golden, Miami never reached its goal of playing for an ACC title, never beat a team that finished the season ranked in the AP Top 25 and suffered 14 double-digit losses, seven of those coming in the last two seasons culminating in Saturday’s loss to Clemson.
Still, though the end was ugly, with angry fans and former players clamoring for Golden’s ouster, midway through his tenure in Coral Gables there was hope.
After Miami went 6-6 and 7-5 in Golden’s first two seasons, the team seemed to have turned the corner in 2013, with the Hurricanes winning seven straight to open the year and rising as high as No. 7 in the AP Top 25.
But that was followed by a demoralizing 41-14 November loss to Florida State that sent the season into a tailspin.
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Miami went on to lose three of its last five games after that, including a 36-9 loss to Louisville in the Russell Athletic Bowl, the Hurricanes’ first postseason appearance after the school self-imposed two bowl bans in the wake of the NCAA investigation.
Not long after that, the drumbeat for Golden’s firing began from an angry fan base and several former players who were vocal in their opposition to how the team, particularly the defense, was playing.
Still, despite the rumblings, James and former Miami president Donna Shalala opted to give Golden more time to try and fix the issues within the Hurricanes program, many of which stemmed from the NCAA’s inquiry.
Though the violations uncovered by the NCAA and highlighted in an August 2011 story from Yahoo Sports happened before Golden arrived in Coral Gables, it was his time at Miami that was rocked by the charges and the ensuing investigation.
In October 2013, the NCAA released its findings, cited Miami for a lack of institutional control and stripped the Hurricanes’ football program of nine scholarships over the course of three years. But it handed down no further postseason bans, clearing the way for Golden and Miami to move forward.
Since, though, the Hurricanes have struggled on the field.
After closing 2013 in disappointing fashion, the team was 6-7 in 2014, only its third losing season since 1980. And the expectation was that the Hurricanes would have to compete for the Coastal Division crown and an ACC title this season for Golden to keep his job.
Then the Clemson loss happened and everything changed.
Now Scott – who has been with the Hurricanes since 2013 and previously served as tight ends, offensive line, and running backs coach at his alma mater USF – is tasked with guiding Miami through the remainder of the season.
“My goal was always to do this at the end of the season for any one of our programs,” James said. “With that said, I felt that going through [Saturday’s] game, my analysis was at a point that the end result has been identified and we weren’t where I felt we needed to be as a program and I felt this was the right decision … in my analysis of our staff, I felt that Larry had the right qualities to be able to step in and really be able to guide our young men over the next five weeks.”
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